PEORIA, Ill. — The Diocese of Peoria announced Monday that Venerable Fulton Sheen will be beatified Dec. 21 at the city’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
Archbishop Sheen had been ordained a priest of the diocese in that cathedral Sept. 20, 1919.
“It seems entirely fitting that the Beatification will take place at the end of this 100-year anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood,” a statement from the Peoria Diocese said Nov. 18.
Fulton Sheen was born in Illinois in 1895, and was 24 when he was ordained a priest.
He was appointed auxiliary bishop of New York in 1951, and he remained there until his appointment as the bishop of Rochester in 1966. He retired in 1969 and moved back to New York City until his death in 1979.
Venerable Sheen was a beloved television catechist during the 1950s and ’60s in the United States. His television show Life Is Worth Living reached an audience of millions. ….